Capitol Hill Policy Update for March 30th to April 13th

SpacePolicyUpdate: Issue #17

NASA Advisory Council Finds NASA Should Go to Mars Instead of Asteroids. The NASA Advisory Council (NAC) “unanimously adopted a finding that” NASA should replace the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) with a mission to go to Mars instead. The finding is not a recommendation, so NASA is not required to act on it. The finding may find effectiveness by convincing policy-makers to replace ARM with a mission to Mars.

Administrator Bolden has announced his plans to advocate for the confirmation of MIT professor Dava Newman’s appointment as NASA Deputy Administrator. The confirmation has been continuously delayed by Congress but has garnered bipartisan support and lacks any controversy. Among other talks, Bolden is seeking an appointment with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to bring the issue to a floor vote as soon as possible.

A report released outlined the struggles that Space Exploration Technologies and the US Air Force have been experiencing for the past few months. The report goes into explaining how SpaceX believes this certification process should be expedited due to their perfect track record for Falcon 9 and have been reluctant to provide large amounts of data. Air Force officials however are treating the certification as more of a “design review” for the rocket and suggesting technical changes to be made. On a similar note, Commander of Air Force Space Command General John Hyten testified before the House Armed Service Committee outlining the advantage that SpaceX competitor ULA has with their cost plus contract for infrastructure and engineering services. Hyten believes this government aid must be removed for “fair competition”.